Sound System
by THE BZ
Summary: This is actually a continuation of my very first fic ever but will be able to stand as it's own story. "The sky glowed a mossy green on this distant planet. There was no sunlight here… only the light of the auroras that blanketed the entire sky"
1. Intermission

Almost three years ago now I wrote my first fan fiction story. It started right here with FLCL. Since then I've written other fics and made up my own stuff but I'd like to revisit the story that turned writing into a hobby for me. After not writing fics at all and only doing my own stuff for so long I kind of itched to come back and keep going where I left off. Reading my old story I'll say it was alright. Though I do think I've improved some and the plot is all over the place. Which is natural since I made it all up as I went along.

The original story is called A World Beyond This. You can find it under my stories.

It's 15 chapters long and I never finished it. This is a continuation of that story and since it has been about two years since I've written anything for it I thought it would be fitting to start this as a new story. This first chapter is a little intermission between the two.

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Intermission:

The sky glowed a mossy green on this distant planet. There was no sunlight here… only the light of the auroras that blanketed the entire sky giving the constant appearance of a sunset. She pulled the cloak around her tightly to protect her from the freezing temperatures. The atmosphere here deflected all thermal heat while ionizing the gas in the upper atmosphere to create the plasma that made up the auroras.

But it was nothing new to her. The last two years of her journey had been filled with endless wandering that yielded no results. During that time she had passed by countless spectacles of natural beauty and paid them no mind.

Her pursuit had long ago come to a stand still. She had gone from distant corner to distant corner looking for some sign or clue to her prey's whereabouts. It had amounted to nothing… the bracelet at her wrist had stayed completely dormant the entire time.

Yet she held onto her legendary tenacity. She would find what it was she sought no matter how far a field she had to look. The universe was only so big and there were only so many places to hide.

Taking a second before she left this planet she allowed herself to sit down; a rare moment of relaxation for her. She leaned back against her yellow bike and gripped the cloak tightly for warmth.

The green hue of the sky cast a green shade on the desolate desert before her. There was nothing to see so instead she found herself thinking dimly of her past experiences. Something seldom done except in moments of extended isolation. After all self-reflection was undoubtedly the easiest way to destroy oneself.

What came to mind was something that gave her the slightest bit of warmth on this freezing plane…. The huddled feeling of sharing a sleeping bag on a park bench with a dirty faced boy. The smell of his unwashed hair in her face as they spent her last few days on that planet before she had left him behind. Left behind like everything else in her life.

She ran a gloved hand down one of the flawlessly smooth mahogany necks that jutted out over her shoulder. She has taken his guitar in exchange for the opportunity he had cost her. In the long run she had come out ahead. The guitar had proven to be the missing link that gave her the ability to fight… no, defeat a godlike entity.

In a way she felt the only person she was indebted to in the whole universe was that small dirty-faced boy. Though she admitted indebted the way a thief was indebt to his victim. A debt never intended to be paid.

The freezing touch of the climate pierced her thoughts ending her train of thought. It was time to move on. As she stood she thought she might be feeling a little more haggard than before. Getting off this desolate rock would be sure to improve her spirits some.

Then she felt something tingle at her wrist and she froze. She heard it… the light rattle of her bracelet warning her of her prey's appearance.

Though not here… she could distantly feel his presence far away; like a beacon in the distance. After two years it seemed Atomsk was on the move again.

Haruko smiled, the stagnation in her quest appeared to be over.

She buried image of the boy standing admits the ruins of his home as she left him.

Her blood warming at the prospect of battle she found herself barely containing a renewed excitement. Launching into the sky with a force the caused the overhang she had been sitting on to collapse she rode out into the sky laughing.

And as she cleared the atmosphere came an unbidden memory… the soft whisper of 'I love you.'

Squeezing the gas she tried to outrun the memory and raced towards what she knew she wanted most.

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I'd love if anyone who read the first story I wrote read this and could tell me how I've changed. After three years I'd like to think I have at least a bit.


	2. He's A Pirate

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He's a Pirate: Ch1.

_Becoming a galactic criminal wasn't what I had in mind. So you may wonder why I might be standing here with this security guard crushed beneath me. How about that alarm sounding off to alert everyone of my presenc_e?

_Well... somehow it just all makes sense to me._

_It's as though everything I went through as a kid made this my inevitable choice. I left the world I knew to look for the only other thing I knew of, Haruko Haruhara._

_I don't know much other than her name, that she's an alien, probably psychotic, likes things that are spicy, and was/is part of a galactic police force. Not enough to get me her address from the yellow pages out here... Especially when said galactic cops are hunting you for being, in galactic terms, the equivalent of an elephant escaped from the reserve. I mean this belongs on f.m.l., right? But crying never helped anyone, at least not me_.

_So how else do I find her? Definitely not by letting some space faring power rangers put my escape from Mabase, and earth, to an end the moment I left the solar preserve. So I did have this one idea._

_I_ _became a pirate. Cops chase after pirates right? At least that's what she was doing when I first met and last saw her. Regardless, I'd be a galactic fugitive either way, no matter what. My options stand as, let the dog catchers hunt me as an animal to be sent back to my kennel on earth, or take up piracy. The only notable difference being that I'm then hunted as an escaped rabid pirate dog instead of just a stray. Hmm, don't ask me how but this just seemed a genius idea at the time... right._

_Let's just say I might be receptive if you've got a better one. _

The guard gave a groan as I stepped off his nuts and neck. Kazu appeared through the smoking entrance that we had made a moment earlier. The jarring hole in the wall was a lovely addition to what may have once been a bathroom. Maybe that explains why the guard was literally shitting himself as we broke in, and not simply sheer terror... Who can say?

Kazu flashed me a childish smile of approval as he darted by and disappeared through a door, deeper into the complex.

A voice crackled into my headphones, "No visuals yet. Has he started downloading?" Hotaru was keeping watch from a nearby high rise.

"He just went in," I answered.

"Slow...," she complained.

More my problem than hers if he was late. I have to keep the point of entry secure till he returns. Odds are there are a dozen or so brotherhood officers on their way to say to come say 'hi' as we speak.

Attacking an administrative GSPB building often results in such. Well not often, always.

But thats fine with me. For once, I'm actually interested in what we are lifting.

Off in the distance I could already hear the sirens of approaching police growing over the perimeter alarm blaring in my ears.

_Crackle_, "I see lights. Officers descending from orbit onto your location."

I moved alongside the wall of our makeshift entrance and peaked out at the sky. Three shooting stars decorated the night above.

_Maybe she's one of them.._.

But I had learned to expect otherwise. The galaxy was massive, running into her was a little more than unlikely.

Starting to fee a little impatient I spoke into the mic, "Kazu, done yet?"

_Crackle_, "Almost. Cracking the security clearance in 6 seconds was the best I could do."

_Crackle_, "Useless," sneered Hotaru.

_Crackle_, "Love you too baby sis..."

Sibling banter wasn't exactly what I wanted to hear right now, "Hotaru?"

"Yea yea, I know. Already got one right in my..."

_Ever heard the sound a baseball makes when you hit it with a metal bat? That ping? Multiply that times a hundred._

Hotaru's H.E.V. orbital rail round flashed across the sky. The loud whining sound of the shot only following a moment later.

The shot struck one of the three approaching shooting stars. The disintegration of the target was virtually instant.

That made me smile a little. I mean who doesn't love fire works?

"Nice shot, bet you can't do it again," I teased into the mic.

Crackle,"Bet? I'll take that."

A second shot flashed, taking another one of the falling stars with it.

_Girl is a freak, how'd she hit once much less twice? Rule one, fear the purple hair. _

_Crackle_,"You owe me."

Nao felt his stomach sink. Not even the sirens had done that.

"Owe you what?," Hotaru wasn't someone you could always take jokingly.

_Crackle_, "Done!," came Kazu's voice.

"We'll discuss it later," the third and final shot pinging as she finished.

The remaining ball of falling light was closer now, having made it through the atmosphere. Hotaru's round flashed gold, rushing across the sky to meet it. Rather than flashing luminously, and disintegrating like the others, the shot collided then was redirected up and out of orbit.

I blinked, that didn't usually happen. Kazu was next to me a moment later, "Oh, the force is strong with that one." He snickered.

Crackle, "**Force** will be my **foot** in your **face** if you guys don't move. It's time to **GO**!"

By the quickness that Kazu and I obeyed you'd wonder if it was instinctual. Maybe it was...

_Kidding aside, Hotaru's H.E.V. rounds pack a condensed force equivalent to 10 Megatons of TNT into a grenade sized shell. To give you an idea, our modern thermonuclear weapons back home have a theoretical maximum limit of about 6 Megatons of TNT force per metric ton of bomb mass._

_Mumbo-Jumbo aside, what that means is we don't wanna fuck with the guy who can hit that kind of fastball. This is part where we run. And if we value our lives, run fast._

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I had this urge to write this, can't say why. However, it's finals week so I can't afford to spend anymore time on it. Hopefully i'll pick it back up shortly.

If you think Nao is out of character, well he is older now and his name is now Nao. Deal lolz


End file.
